Inadequate measures taken to secure container terminals on Ring Road have resulted in damage to Nato logistics at the hands of suspected militants that attacked these parking lots for six times recently.The federal and provincial governments have deployed fresh contingents of police and Frontier Constabulary, while military vehicles started patrolling the Ring Road after the recent attacks on terminals.
Suspected militants in six attacks between December 1 and December 13 have torched over 300 vehicles, including armoured personnel carriers and Humvees as well as containers.
Containers that were set on fire were trans-shipping ammunition, fuel, foodstuff and other goods for the US-led Nato forces, fighting against Taliban in Afghanistan. The loss in shape of vehicles and goods was estimated to be in billions.
A security plan was chalked out to secure Nato supplies after continuous attacks. The NWFP cabinet while expressing grave concern over six successive attacks had ordered taking some measures to counter militant attacks on these parking lots.
However, while travelling on Ring Road in daylight, one finds no extraordinary security outside these parking bays located on both sides of the road, right from Hazarkhwani to Pishtakhara. Some cops used to be deployed in and around these terminals while military vehicles patrol a very few kilometre strip in the night to counter any attack.
"We are making efforts to ensure security to these parking lots within our limited resources. So far our strategy is going well," the head of a patrolling party told this scribe. The major negligence is on the part of the contractors and terminals' owners. Still hundreds of containers are lying on roadside in the open fields.
Some of these containers have millions of rupees goods inside and they can be attacked even from a moving vehicle. No properly trained security guards have been hired to secure the valuable supplies.
Residents of Hazarkhwani, Pishtakhara, Qamardin Garhi, Landi Arbab and other areas, where around 14 parking lots are located, are concerned about their security after six horrible attacks that triggered innumerable explosions to wake up the Peshawarites in the late night.
"My entire family is worried about the security. Where can we shift in a situation when cantonment is being attacked with rockets while the rest of the areas are vulnerable for kidnapping or other criminal incidents," Javed Khan, a resident of Dir Colony, remarked.
After feeling insecurity, the truckers trans-shipping Nato supplies across the border to Afghanistan, have also decided to halt their operation. The Khyber Transport Association, which claims to have over 3,000 members, had announced stopping supplies to Nato forces after damage to their vehicles and loss of lives as well as in reaction to the US drone attacks in North and South waziristan.
Another transporters' body had asked for shifting container terminals from Ring Road to any secure place. The senior police authorities had also proposed shifting of the parking bays to a safer area.